Red Sox have plenty of options at shortstop, third base

DETROIT — Red Sox manager John Farrell has spent the last 10 days juggling Stephen Drew, Will Middlebrooks and Jose Iglesias at shortstop and third base.

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

DETROIT — Red Sox manager John Farrell has spent the last 10 days juggling Stephen Drew, Will Middlebrooks and Jose Iglesias at shortstop and third base.

“We’ve got three infielders and only two positions on the left side of the infield,” Boston general manager Ben Cherington said this week. “John is trying to get all three of those guys in the best positions to succeed. We felt we’re a better team with all three of them.”

There might soon be four.

With Xander Bogaerts now at Triple-A Pawtucket — a level at which Cherington said there’s “no such thing as a prospect,” only potential reinforcements for the big-league team — the scenarios for the left side of the infield are almost endless. By August or September, the Red Sox could find themselves with four candidates to play those two positions, a juggling act Farrell never could have anticipated when the season began.

It all started with the emergence of Iglesias, a spectacular defender at shortstop who has proven equally adept — with his lightning-quick hands and feet — at third base. Iglesias simultaneously has taken enormous steps forward at the plate, steps reflected not just in his the .426 batting average he took into Thursday night’s game against the Tigers but in the way he’s hitting the ball with authority to all fields, something he’d never before done either in the major leagues or minor leagues.

Along with that goes the downturn in the production of Middlebrooks, a young hitter who looked like a budding star when he took over for Kevin Youkilis a year ago. He hit 15 home runs and slugged .509 in almost 300 plate appearances last season, but he’s slugging under .400 and getting on base at a woeful .232 clip this season. Injuries certainly can be blamed for at least some of the diminished production, but Middlebrooks struck out more than five times for every walk last season and is striking out six times for every walk this season — numbers that history says don’t lead to much success.

Drew was signed to be the starting shortstop, a point Boston drove home when it sent Iglesias back to Triple in April despite a .450 batting average in the season’s first week. But while Drew has played defense well beyond expectations, he’s hitting just .215 with a .300 on-base percentage, below-average numbers even for a shortstop.

And then there’s Bogaerts, who upon promotion figures to be the most talented position player to graduate from the Red Sox farm system since Nomar Garciaparra. Bogaerts hit a home run in his second Triple-A game a week ago, and he hit .315 with a .392 on-base percentage and .531 slugging percentage in more than 350 plate appearances at Double-A Portland last season and this.

Like Iglesias did, Bogaerts will take ground balls at second base and third base while with the PawSox — though he won’t be asked to do so until he’s had enough time at Triple A to be comfortable.

Should Bogaerts struggle in Triple A, he could stay with the PawSox for the rest of the season. But Bogaerts has never struggled in his initial exposure to any other level — and because he’ll have to be added to the 40-man roster by November anyway, there’s no reason he couldn’t be called up to the major leagues in August or September if he’s ready.

All the Red Sox really need is for two of their left-side infielders to produce at an above-average level. Should all four show signs of doing so, however, Farrell could be in for an interesting juggling act down the stretch.

Maybe Iglesias will play third base every day in September. Maybe Bogaerts will play shortstop every day in September. Maybe it’ll be the other way around.

Or maybe Drew and Middlebrooks will play shortstop and third base, respectively, just like they were expected to all along.

Only time — and the way Bogaerts, Drew, Iglesias and Middlebrooks perform — will tell.